Secure wireless LAN service at a COOP cafeteria

This paper presents an integrated method to achieve authorized access for wireless LAN service in a COOP cafeteria. The key issues of our method are user authentication and user tracking. We adopt PPPoE (point-to-point protocol over Ethernet), PPTP (point-to-point tunneling protocol), and MPPE (Microsoft point-to-point encryption) for the user authentication and security, and implement IDENT mechanism for the user tracking. Moreover, we integrate transparent proxy service. Our system consists of inexpensive HUBs, ordinary wireless stations, a mid-class PC as PPPoE/PPTP server, and the account database system of the student computer lab, and is working successfully from the view point of performance both for LAN sockets and wireless LAN environment in our university. The evaluation with IEEE802.11b, which means 11M bps at maximum, showed the total performance of PPPoE with 128bit-MPPE is about 75% of the one without MPPE.